Future, Imperfect, and Conditional Tenses. The Adjective. Sitting, standing, etc.
by Myles Dillon
T LESSON IX The Irish future tense translates the "shall" and "will" forms of English verbs, and the imperfect is a habitual: dunfad "I shall shut", do dhunainn "I used to shut". If you want to say in Irish "I was shutting", you have to use the verb "to be", just as in English: do bhios ag dunadh. These paradigms should be learned: dunaim "I shut" Future Imperfect Conditional sg. 1 dunfad do dhunainn do dhunfainn 2 dunfair do dhuntha do dhunfa 3 dunfaidh se do dhunadh se do dhunfadh se PL l dunfaimid do dhunaimis do dhunfaimis 2 dunfaidh sibh do dhunadh sibh do dhunfadh sibh 3 dunfaid (siad) do dhunaidis do dhunfaidis buailim "I strike" Future Imperfect Conditional Sg. 1 buailfead do bhuailinn do bhuailfinn 2 buailfir do bhuailthea do bhuailfea 3 buailfidh se do bhuaileadh se do bhuailfeadh se PL 1 buailfimid do bhuailimis do bhuailfimis 2 buailfidh sibh do bhuaileadh do bhuailfeadh sibh sibh 3 buailfid (siad) do bhuailidis do bhuailfidis The / of the future stem is pronounced h except in the 2 sg. conditional and in the passive-impersonal forms (p. 109): doonhad, doonhir, doonhi she, etc.; but ghoonfaa, doonfar, doonfee. 57 58 IRISH The verb ta has, beside the imperfect, a special habitual present: 1 Habitual Present Sg. l binilam (habitually) 2 2 bir,bionntu 3 bionnse PL l bimid 2 bionnsibh f bid(siad) ^ 1 bionnsiad Imperfect do bhinn I used to be do bhithea do bhiodh se do bhimis do bhiodh sibh do bhidis Conditional do bheinn do bheifea do bheadh se do bheimis do bheadh sibh do bheidis The attributive adjective follows the noun it qualifies and agrees with it in number, gender and case: an fear mor "the tall man", an chloch mhor "the big stone". Adjectives ending in a broad consonant are declined like the nouns in Lesson I, except that the nom. pi. masc. is the same as the fern., and the dat. pi. is the same as the nom.: an fhir mhoir "of the tall man", na fir mhora "the tall men", na bhfear mor "of the tall men", dosnafearaibh mora "to the tall men"; na cloiche moire "of the big stone", ar an gcloich mhoir "on the big stone", na clocha mora "the big stones". Remember that when the adjective is predicative it does not agree with the noun (p. 27), and note that nearly all adjec- tives that end in vowels are indeclinable, that is, they have the same form for all cases sg. and pi. The adjective is made into an adverb by putting go before it: go maith "well", go mor "greatly", go hole "badly". The following common adjectives always take go after the verb td: aoibhinn, dlainn, bred, deas, dona, iontach, maith, olc. Go is never used with an adjective after the copula: do dheinis go maith e or is maith a dheinis el "you did it well!" is beag a cheapas, "little I thought", nach luath a thdinig se! "isn't it early he came!" 1 The future of "to be" was given in Lesson VI. 2 Anglo-Irish "I do be" LESSON IX 59 These last examples illustrate an important use of the copula, namely emphasis. In Irish, if you want to say "he came yesterday" (not to-day), the word for yesterday is brought to the head of the sentence by means of the copula, and is followed by the relative particle a which causes aspiration: is inne a thdinig se; just as you can say in English "it was yesterday that he came". But this order is normal in Irish where in English a mere stress would suffice. So also is e a thdinig inne "it is he who came yesterday". And similarly for any notion to be emphasised: is i mBaile Atha Cliath atd se anois "he is in Dublin now"; ni thios atd se ach thuas ar an gcnoc "it is not below, but up on the hill", where both is and td appear together. Note that the relative form of td is atd without aspiration of the t. We have seen (p. 44f .) that the verbal noun and some other nouns of action, preceded by the preposition ag, serve to translate an English present participle: td se ag briseadh chloch "he is breaking stones", td se ag deanamh ti "he is building a house", td se ag obair "he is working", td se ag caint "he is talking". The verbal nouns for standing, sitting, lying, sleeping, waking, and dwelling and the word tost "being silent" (which is not a verbal noun) require a special construction. The preposition z with a possessive adjective is used: td se ina sheasamh "he is standing"; tdimid indr sui "we are sitting", "we are up (out of bed)"; tdid ina lui ar an urldr "they are lying on the floor"; td Sean ina chodladh "John is asleep"; tdimid indr gconai i gCorcaigh "we live in Cork"; bhiobhair in bhur nduiseacht "you were awake"; bhi se ina thost "he was silent". Ce? who? an te he who, cathain? when? conas? how? and nuair when (rel.) are followed by the relative particle a. After ce and an te the particle is usually omitted in writing, but the aspiration remains, The particle do is not used after relative a unless the verb begins with a vowel: cathain a bhis ann? "when were you there?" cathain a ithis (or a dh'ithis) do dhinnear? "when did you have dinner?"; ce bheidh ag teacht? "who will be coming?" 6o IRISH VOCABULARY aibidh (abig) ripe aimsir (aymshir) f. weather alainn (aaling) beautiful anocht (a-nocht) to-night baisteach (baashdach) f. rain beithigh (be-heeg) pi. cattle bo f. cow; pi. ba (bo) brea (braa) fine buicead (ba-ked) m. pail caithim (kaahim) / winnow cathain? (ka-hin) when? conai (ko-nee) living, dwelling deas (das) pretty, nice do chonac (chnuk) I saw do thanag (haanag) / came dearthair (dri-haar) m. brother dul going, to go eochair (ochir) f. key fado (fo-do) long ago gach each, every gairdin (gaar-deen) m. garden grainne (graangi)m. grain isteach (ish-dach) in (adv.) istoiche (is-deehi) at night laidir (laadir) strong lui (lee) lying nuair (nooir) when olc (61k) bad scaoilim (sgeelim) / let loose seasamh (shasav) standing seideadh (sheda) blowing, to blow slacht (slocht) m. (indecl.) order, tidiness sraidbhaile (sraadvali) m village sui (see) sitting suiste (sooshdi) m. flail tairicthe (tariki) drawn tapaidh (topig) quick teacht (tacht) coming, to come tirim (trim) dry Traigh Li (traa-lee) Tralee trathnona (traan-hona) m. evening; um thrathnona in the evening trom (troum) heavy taobh (tav) m. side Exercise 22 A. Do rithimis. Olfad. Scriobhfaid siad. D'fhanadh se. Diolfaimid. D'fheachadh sibh. Cuirfead amach iad. D'fhagaidis na paisti sa bhaile. B. 1. Bhi an fear mor ag caint le garsun beag. 2. Cathain a chuirfid siad amach na capaill 6ga? 3. Ta na leabhair mhora san ana-throm. 4. Fanfaimid i gCorcaigh anocht. 5. Do LESSON IX 61 bhiodh Sean ina chonai i mBaile Atha Cliath, ach ni hann ata se anois. 6. Diolfad an bho dhubh amaireach. 7. Ta na clocha troma ar thaobh an bhothair. 8. Bhi Micheal ina shui ar an stol nuair a thanag isteach. 9. Bhi se ina thost agus do bhios-sa ag caint. 10. Ta se ina sheasamh ag an ndoras anois. 11. D'fhagadh se bainne na bo deirge sa bhuicead bhan. 12. Do bhidis ann gach maidin agus do ghlanaidis an tigh. 13. Scaoilfimid amach na ba urn thrathnona. 14. Buainfid siad an coirce nuair a bheidh se aibidh. 15. Nuair a bheidh se tairicthe isteach, buailfid siad e le suistibh. 16. Caithfid siad ansan e, agus cuirfid siad an grainne isteach i malaibh. 17. Feachann an gairdin go halainn. 18. Bionn se go deas sa tSamhradh. 19. Ni deas a bhi se nuair a thanag anso, ach ni rabhamair i bhfad ag cur slacht air. Exercise 23 A. 1. I shall run. 2. They will drink. 3. You used to write. 4. They will stay. 5. They used to sell. 6. He will look. 7. We shall strike them. 8. They will put him out. 9. We used to read those books. 10. They will leave the money in the box. B. 1. My father will sell the big house. 2. He is not living there now. 3. The men used to thresh the oats with flails and put the grain into sacks. 4. The little girl was standing in the field when I saw her. 5. I came in when you were going out. 6. The little boys will let out the dogs. 7. Were you awake when they were coming in? 8. Mary will sell the butter in the village. 9. She used to send it to Tralee long ago. 10. When will Michael weed (say "clean") the garden? 11. My brother was asleep when I came in. 12. 1 shall leave the key under the big stone. 13. We were standing at the window and they were sitting on the floor. 14. 1 was talking, but she remained silent. 15. He used to speak quickly but he used to speak well. 16. The poor cattle used to be always out in (say "under") the rain at night. 17. Yesterday (an Id inne) was fine. 18. The wind was blowing strongly, but the weather was not bad. .